001I call to order the Brownsburg Community School Corporation Board of School Trustees regular meeting of June 14, 2021. I ask everybody to rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please join me for a moment of reflection. Thank you. Consent items, Dr. Snap. Mr. President, members of the board, I ask for approval of items A and B, the minutes of the May 24th work session and executive session at this time, please. Do I have a motion? So moved. A motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. And then continuing items C, D, and E, along
002with F, request approval this time. Do we have a motion? Second. Motion and second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Communications. Brownsburg Education Foundation report, Mrs. Dierman. Yep, okay. Okay, so chip in for the kids golf outing that was presented by Summers Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. It took place on Friday, June 11th, and thank you all for sponsorship and participants and volunteers. It was successful. Scholarships, we have a list of recipients, and that can be found on the BEF website. Awarded was $49,000 in scholarships. Grants. $49,000 in District Excellence Award grants were awarded in May, and that list can be found on the BEF website also. Individual teachers or staff groups can apply for an incredible award. That's another grant, and that focuses on innovation and creativity, and that
003is due by August 15th. Bulldog Book Bus. That's sponsored by Duke Energy. You may have seen the BEF Bulldog Book Bus driving through a neighborhood near you every Tuesday this summer, encouraging kids to keep up their reading skills and lending out our books. That's a great program for our kids. Designer Purse Bingo is coming up. It's presented by Adelsberger Orthodontist. Tuesday, August 17th. Doors open at 5. Bingo starts at 6.30. The tickets include 20 rounds of bingo and are on sale starting Saturday, July 17th at 9 a.m. See the BEF website for more details, updates, and sponsorship opportunities. And if I remember correctly, we had some really good food trucks. for that last year with some good food so don't miss that and then the annual surplus sale that'll be saturday september 25th from 8
004to 10 central office warehouse exact inventory is not known yet but check the website for updates thank you thank you mrs nearman operations update mr voigt Just three quick things this evening. First of all, I just wanted to give the board a quick update on where we are with our canine. Our second canine animal, Kaya, should be on campus for the start of the new school year. Kaya is a German Shepherd. We're actually taking care of our training in a little different way. We're utilizing a training group out of Westfield, and they've been able to move that dog along quite well, and it will come to our campus fully trained, whereas with previous animals, we've had to do some supplemental training through the school year. Kaya and Zena will both be rotated through the buildings
005throughout the school year as they have been done, as has been done in the past. The other thing, if you've been down on the south end of campus, you'll notice that West Middle School is well underway at this point. They started demolishing the inside of the related arts area. The drive that connects Cardinal and Delaware Trail to West is severed at this time. You cannot get either direction. It will be reopened for the start of the new school year, one way only for parent pickup and drop-off at West, and we're continuing to work our way through that. So far, the project has been going well. We do open bids on the remaining contracts in July, and we'll be bringing that forward. approval later on next month and then last but not least we have been
006working on crossroads we have a meeting on wednesday morning to continue the work there to develop the site layout for that project as well as to refine the building plan we're really using lincoln as the basis of the program and then mirroring it as we have with two other building projects that we have we do expect to be under construction on that project in the spring of next year and we are looking to open up in the spring of the summer of 24. so that's really the operations update for this evening thank you mr boyd any questions for mr boyd okay thank you mr royce appreciate your time uh we're now have comments from patrons um just kind of a little bit of reminder to everybody that we had everybody everybody that's making statement had
007to register ahead of time You'll be recognized. We'll go ahead and read out your name and ask that you state your name. Everybody's limited to two minutes, so we will, with the number, we have a number of people speaking tonight, so we're going to limit it to two minutes, and we're going to ask that you limit that duration so we can get through all of these. So to begin with, we have, and if I mess up anybody's name, I apologize ahead of time, Carmen Worlds. First I want to state really quickly that I'm visually impaired so it may be some adjustment on the glasses and different stuff as I'm reading. Good evening. Thank you to Dr. Snapp and all the school board members who work so hard for the students in our community. My name
008is Carmen Worlds. My husband and I have had five of our youngest children attend Brownsburg schools with four graduates thus far. Thank you, Jesus. I decided to speak this evening because I couldn't comprehend why another group of parents in the community are working so hard to continue to perpetuate systemic racism within our school system by attacking the very checks and balances being put in place to eliminate it. Why are you so threatened by Shayla Webb being our first coordinator of equity and diversity? Have you looked at the statistics when our schools on percentages of students in high ability classes or being disciplined? Sure, some of you will say it just is what it is. But I ask you the question, why is it? All of the work done in parent committees and the school board
009has been for the betterment of all students. Every single child has worth by just being. I am hopeful that we will now make all history lessons and character traits for our children and grandchildren true, accurate, diverse, inclusive, and equitable. And I'd also like to quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in an article he wrote, The Purpose of Education. It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society. The one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life. Education must also train one for quick, resolute, and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for oneself is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life
010become invaded by legions of half-truths. prejudices and propaganda. At this point I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically or scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. You've reached your two-minute mark, so please try to wrap up. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence to discern the truth from the false, the real from the unwield, and the facts from the fiction. I can do the rest of it at another meeting. I'll be back. Thank you very much. Dr. Eldridge? Hello, good evening school board. Thank
011you President Hilton and good evening community members. I'm really excited to be here today because I was driving around our community and I was startled but yet encouraged. I was encouraged because there were so many people interested in public discourse. I was encouraged because I thought wow there are so many people concerned about creating a school district where our children and educators are creative thinkers, where they're critical thinkers, where they learn about history, where they have compassion, where they seek to build bridges, where they understand not only math, science, physics, where they have cultural humility, where they understand the art of reconciliation. I was so encouraged because there are parents here I was so encouraged because my son would rather be here than at soccer practice. I thought, wow, this 13-year-old was excited because he
012understands public discourse and he understands the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion at a young age because he understands that's the value of coming together and conversing. That's the value of coming together when difference doesn't mean deficiency. That's the value of understanding that signs in a yard that encourage education, that understand higher achievement together means working together instead of being culturally divisive in a community that's reflective of so many global identities. I just want to thank the school board for continuing the work, for doing the work. And I'm really thankful that everyone in this room is committed to having children that are global leaders. I want to applaud everyone in this room for being mindful of who matters most. And that's the global leaders of the future that are part of Brownsburg Community School Corp.
013So give yourselves a round of applause for being mindful of who matters most. And that's the children and that's the leaders and that's the administrators. And those are all of you sitting here. So thank you for being involved with inclusive excellence. Good night. Jennifer Rademacher. Everyone here wants to think that their opinion matters and that they are an individual with unique experiences, thoughts, and ambitions. But with intersectionality, your opinion only matters relative to your identity and where that identity ranks on the hierarchy of victim groups. On the bottom of this hierarchy would be my boys, straight white males. And at the top of the hierarchy, well, that varies depending on which new group is claiming victim status. This means that you only view the world through group identity terms. Let me make this real for
014you within our school system. With this new responsive teaching, my boys have no voice because if they speak out, they are then characterized by their group attribute, which is an angry, white, young man. How is that not sexist, ageist, and racist? But let's say that one of my sons is gay. Okay, now he's allowed an opinion. Well, then you find out that my son is also biracial, and now he has moved up on the hierarchy because he has two intersecting groups. But wait, he's also a transsexual. Well, now my son, who you thought should have no voice at all and told to check his white privilege, is suddenly allowed an opinion because he has three intersecting groups. Excuse me. This is so dangerous because these identifying markers become the most important factors of our students
015identity and the more intersecting groups that a student fits into the higher their intersectionality score and the trouble with that is that it favors group identity over individual experience. You are going back pre-civil rights era where the ignorant thinking was to define people by their race, gender, and sexual orientation rather than by the character or behavior. The list of intersecting variables could literally go on forever. Why not add height, weight, health, net worth, or any number of other group identifiers that affect our voyages through life? There are countless categories and groups that we could use as identifying markers, but I would rather our teachers just view each one as simply a student who is ready to learn instead of a victim. Thank you. Thank you. Jason Vanderpan. groups and I was not expecting to be
016up here today but me and my wife Alicia we are new here to Brownsburg and when we heard that they might be implementing this critical race theory to our children we knew that we had to come here okay however you paint this however you paint this or however you feel whatever identity you are these this critical race theory it is what it is it's racist Okay? I'm sorry. It is. What people have in their heart is what they have in their heart. Okay? As far as what education is, it's teaching our kids how to get to the next level of education. Okay? These things, whether it's religion, whether it's race, leave that to the parents. Leave that to the parents to talk to their children and let their children decide what path they want to
017go. But that's all I really got to say. Like I said, we love Brownsburg. We're new to here. And once we heard about this, we were just like, no, this, this, you know, we want our children just to come to school to learn. I've been through school my whole life. You know, I have two college degrees, not dropping it, dropping names or anything, but I've, I've, I've been through a lot of education. I did fine without this. My, my, my children will do fine without this. Okay, and I'm sure a lot of people here feel the same way. So thank you. Thank you. Brian Widener. Good evening. My name is Brian Widener. Over the past several meetings, we've regularly heard Dr. King's speech quoted. Specifically, I have a dream that my four little children will
018one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. The use of this, this quote, is not about being colorblind, but rather about recognizing equity. opportunity regardless of race. While the end goal of this process is that there is no judgment because of race, here in Brownsburg and elsewhere in our country we're far from that. For those who have regularly attended our board meetings over the past year, we've heard several examples of racial inequality. Some examples from presentations in this room were made before the board during the past year. Now while several of these have been from a range of community members, Muslim, Jewish, second language, LGBTQ members, for the sake of time I'd like to just focus on some
019of the things that came up regarding our black students. For reference in 2019 to 2020, black students made up 12.9% of the students in Brownsburg. In February's board meeting, we heard about high ability placements. Only 3.1% of students were black in our high ability program. Again, I want to remind you there were 12.9% of our students who are black overall. In March, we heard about discipline. At the high school, black students accounted for 29.8% of tardy infractions, 34% of fighting referrals, and 46.8% of insubordination suspensions. In other words, a black student is 3.6 times more likely to be suspended for insubordination than their fellow students. In those presentations, similar numbers were shown for other years as well. So this leaves us with two possibilities. One is that our black students are much less capable and
020have huge behavior issues. The second is that we have a system that is judging them inequitably solely because of the color of their skin. During the last school board elections, we heard several candidates state that they could not talk about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion because there were not clear definitions of these words. We now have those definitions. You've hit your two-minute mark, so try to wrap up. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is it Eric Knight? I can't remember. Knighty? All right. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. You know, we have a great reputation here in Brownsburg for our schools. We've focused on math, science, English, all these things. We've built this reputation. But all of a sudden we're doing something wrong. We're having to include all this social emotional learning talk
021and that we're somehow institutionally racist. Why would people want to come here to a racist school district? That doesn't make any sense to me. This whole concept of systematic racism is just ludicrous. We talked about this. Are we going to hold students to different standards because of their race? Because that's what you're telling me. we're targeting a particular race? No, we have the same rule sets. I don't understand this. And specifically high ability, we're looking at this and we're going to, high ability students, especially underachieving high ability students will receive counseling services and effective curriculum to meet their unique racial and socioeconomic and career needs. So we're gonna change standards based on their race? Come on, how does that build and value each of our differences? My kid qualified into high ability. We're not like
022telling that there's going to be different standards for her because she's female. Well, females don't make good engineers. This is ludicrous. We hold everyone to the same standards. That is equality. We need to focus on that. And I will refute this institutional racism because then they're saying that all of you are racist and you've been doing it wrong. And that's ridiculous. Thank you. Mark Nierswick. This is a bit of a change of pace. I'm Mark Nierswick. Mark, can you hold on just one second? Does somebody have a phone? Okay, okay. Just wanted to make sure. Thank you. I'm just here to give some general feedback on how some of the decisions you all have made affected my family this past crazy COVID year. First, this is my first time speaking, so quick intro. I am
023a longtime resident and graduate. I have three kids. One graduated several years ago. One graduated a couple weeks ago after a very interesting senior year. And I got one with two years left. In total, I've been a parent of a Brownsburg student for 20 years, which means I've been around here a lot, but also I think I'm starting to get old. So a lot of parents have talked about being thankful for the music programs and being able to do that. I just wanted to take that a step further because my youngest son is intending to go into college for music and pursue that as a career. So for him, it's been more being able to practice and perform together. Anybody who has had church over Zoom knows that music doesn't quite translate as well. But
024being able to practice together is more than just a memory for him. It goes straight to his vocation. And I know from his friends and others that there's more than just him that appreciate it. Okay, after having recently gone through the college application process with my daughter who just graduated, it's also very important to maintain the high academic standards that we have here. I'll use Purdue as an example, my mask, you can see I went there. That's where she's going as well. I'm excited. But filling out that application, it's rough. Purdue has done a great job keeping tuition down these several years, but they're doing it by letting in more out of state and international students, making the competitiveness a little bit higher, right? So there's less than half, and the critical programs like engineering
025and computer science are in state now. It's really competitive and people need the edge they can get, any edge they can get. So coming from a school with high academic standards has been very meaningful. So she is going to study applied mathematics. I know most of you are probably thinking, who in the world would want to study applied mathematics? Well, her parents are kind of nerdy, so it makes sense. But what surprises me is that one of the career paths that she keeps bringing up is being a high school math teacher. And to me, that says she had a very positive classroom experience. You've hit your two-minute mark, so I just, if you could read. So, Mr. Schwannekamp and Mrs. Mendenhall are rock stars. That's all. Thanks. Thank you. David Welch. I misunderstood that. I
026thought the packet was saying if I wanted to speak. It's okay. I'm new to Brownsburg. My family is moving here in July. We're moving to the new subdivision, Bell Harbor. And I'm moving here because Brownsburg offers, I think it offers my kids something that I want my kids to have. Now, that was before I learned about the CRT and a few other things. I thought about what I might say if I did, in fact, get cold. And, of course, I did. And that just has it as luck. I noticed that your logo there says together, that we need to be together. Critical race theory divides. Take a look. I mean, it's race. The very middle initial stands for race. You're asking the student to signal out who's black, who's white. I was thinking about that
027Martin Luther King thing, and obviously you guys have discussed it at will previous to me talking here. But Martin Luther King asked for us to see a world that tries to be colorblind. But you're forcing us to see the color. I thought we were trying to go forward, not backward. That's all. Becky Secord. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. Last month, this board approved divisive far left-leaning terminology, which will be imposed on all of our teachers. As I predicted during the election last year, this is a wish list item for our teachers union. As of last year, more teachers in Brownsburg were not participating in teachers unions than who are. I'm curious to know how these non-union teachers will be treated when they don't agree with the radical terminology the board has approved. Will
028they be fired? What about our students? Will they be suspended or expelled? Last month, Epoch Times published an article regarding CRT and school board activism like we are seeing today. The article described your actions as, and I'm quoting here, detrimental to employees and has led to increased anxiety and bullying in the work setting. With that in mind, 140 BCSC teachers will be attending diversity equity training along with IPS and Wayne Township teachers. What does this training entail? Inquiring minds of the community would like to know if this program will create increased work anxiety and bullying as behavior experts are suggesting. We've all seen the reaction in our community over the past month. My question to you, the board, simple. How many students do you need to leave before you realize you're heading in the wrong
029direction? You are elected to represent the community. Instead, you stand steadfast to promote far-left teachers' union ideas over the desires of this small community. Is this why the teachers' unions funded some of your campaigns? How about masks? According to Dr. Fauci, February 5th, a 2020 email, masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection. The typical mask you buy at the drugstore is not really effective in keeping out the virus, which is small enough to pass through the material. But hey, don't take it from me or even Dr. Fauci. I'll read the warning label on the back of this packet. This is it. The mask does not eliminate exposure to the risks of contracting any disease or infection.
030Misuse may result in sickness or death. For proper use, see instructions. Today I'm asking you to follow the science. Let kids be kids and make masks optional for our students. Please conclude your remarks. Allow parents to choose what's best for their children. Kristen Ferklick. I was going to comment on something else, but as usual, I think I need to drive home this point about critical race theory. And by the way, thank you for mentioning our yard signs. We are Brownsburg for Agenda Free Education. There are several of us here tonight. I've heard in this room from many of you and many of you critical race theory being defined in terms that are wholly wrong, unbelievably wrong. I've been studying this for quite some time at this point, unfortunately. It's not something I ever wanted to
031do. In fact, I pulled my kids out of the system last fall. after I saw what was happening. I'm here tonight still fighting this because this still affects every single one of us in this community, in our states, and in this country. Critical race theory is an ideology that was born simultaneously out of legal studies and radical feminism back in the 60s and 70s. Dr. Snapp, Eric Hilton, Mike Wells, and I think Jessica Heffernan have all told us vehemently that it is not being taught in Brownsburg schools. I would take that with a grain of salt. They're all funded by the teachers union. Now, do I believe that third graders are embarking on complex legal studies or that kindergarteners are turning into radical feminists at the hands of Brownsburg teachers? Because that's what CRT is,
032right? No, I don't think that. That's the semantics games that these people up here are going to use on you. It's always a semantics shell game. That's what it is in a formal sense. In practical application, CRT says that racism exists everywhere. Your time is up. Please conclude your remarks. And in every system. The job of the theorist, therefore, is to assess how and where the racism occurred in each and every circumstance. Please conclude your remarks and sit down. Where is the data? Where is the racism? It has been asked time and time and time and time again. Please conclude your remarks and sit down, please. We can get on to the other speakers, and we tried to keep it to two minutes for everybody. We appreciate that. Where is the data? Do we ever
033get to see it? Keely Stewart. Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I want to speak quickly on the board's vote to initiate critical race theory into our school system. I know you've all said that that's not happening here. But it is, and I fundamentally disagree with you. Critical race theory is outlawed in many states. Critical race theory is also theory. Why on earth would we teach this as fact in our schools? Critical race theory is much deeper and more dangerous than members of this board seem to understand. CRT teaches kids that their value in society is due to the color of their skin, or lack thereof. It teaches them to hate and resent others and actually increases racism and reverse racism. CRT teaches kids to be victims. Why on earth would we
034want to teach our kids to be victims? CRT reinforces racism by a segregation mentality. We cannot teach CRT and expect anything but an increase in hate and documentable racism in our community. We cannot solve racism with additional racism. Within BCSC, there's been only one publicly documented report of an experienced microaggression. Experience is the key word here. Experience is the outcome of individual perception. Perception is subjective and immeasurable. In an environment primed to find racism around every corner, in a system that teaches children that they live in a matrix of victimhood, how many microaggressions do you think they're going to perceive in a day? Macroaggressions are defined as participation in big systems of oppression. There have been zero documented cases of macroaggression in BCSC. Sounds to me that BCSC and families within this community have done
035a pretty good job of keeping racism out. I teach my children non-discriminative practices, and I think most of us do here. I teach my kids that race is not something that you need to even see past being kind to everyone, no matter what. Your two minutes is up. Can you please conclude? Thank you. I will. I'd like to encourage you, board, to please keep what we're good at in Brownsburg schools, reading, writing, arithmetic, and all the basics. That's what our kids need to know. They don't need SEL, and they don't need CRT. Thank you. Dave Tinky. Good evening. Thanks for giving me time to speak. Note that we're celebrating Flag Day and all things that are good in America. Today I was able to spend most of the day at a place called White's Residential
036School and Family Services. If you don't know about White's, it's a school for troubled youth in northern Indiana. The event supported the school and today was the 48th anniversary of the group of those students, four of them, winning the mile relay at the Indiana State High School track meet. This is a school of about 100 kids, troubled youth, mainly sent there from DCS, Department of Child Services. It's interesting to note that one of the children that was sent there at the time, a young black man, about 14, 15 years old, was sent there by DCS. He admitted that he came from a family that was abusive of others. He was definitely a racist when he got there because he hated all white people. Yet when he left, He was taught by his coach, a fellow
037by the name of Chuck, that the love and the mutual respect overcame racism. It's interesting to note that whites did not have a diversity, equity, and inclusion officer. They did not have definitions, and they did not put people in a box. And when Mr. Young man, his name was Elex, he's 66 or 67 years old today, he said at the end, Chuck the coach didn't put me in a box treat me like a person that got unanimous applause from the folks there at the 100 people there at the whites Event today, so this was done out of mutual respect and admiration for one another not done out of following definitions Beth Riga I guess I need to echo Ms. Ferklick, who spoke a couple of people before me. Where is the data? Where is the
038information? I'm confused. This is only my second board meeting, but I've been looking through the minutes for the past few years, and I haven't found anything that says we are imposing CRT in our schools. If somebody can show me something that says that's the policy, I would love to see it. Please come see me after the meeting. Do we teach diversity in our schools? Do we teach acceptance of other people in our schools? Sure, we do. And yeah, I started teaching in 1993 and I did not teach anywhere where we didn't have some sort of diversity training to help us to have a better understanding of the kids and to help the kids have a better understanding of one another and i think that that's all that's going on here but if there's somebody who
039can show me something different i would love to see it you know as far as these definitions that were approved last time goes that we're going to tick off boxes with intersectionality i've never understood that to be the case either that we're going to get points for everybody who's a minority or who's female or who has an LGBTQ identifying child. That's not what this is about. The board had talked earlier from what I've read in the minutes about we need to have some sort of definitions as a basis to talk about this. We need to talk about how we can improve our kids and their understanding of people who may look a little different, have different experiences from them. And because of that, a committee was formed. The community came up with these definitions that
040were used last year, or that were approved last week, rather, as a springboard to help us improve our curriculum. It's not imposing the definitions. Our children aren't going to learn those definitions. It's just something to help our community improve the experience for everyone. Your two minutes are up, so please conclude. So I urge somebody to show me the CRT definitions and how the board is adopting them, if that exists, because I haven't seen it. Thank you. Kim Smoot. Hi, I'm Kim. I have three children in the schools. I have high school, middle school, and elementary school. And unfortunately, I'm not prepared to talk about diversity because I thought curriculum was set by the state. So when that changes and you guys get to decide curriculum, maybe we'll have this conversation. Mine is about the mask
041recommendations. I mean, for the year, we followed the State Department of Health, I thought, recommendations. And updated on the 8th, they recommend masks for unvaccinated individuals. Elementary school is ineligible at this time. So it's hard to speak to something when I don't know exactly what you're voting on. I would hope that you are going to stay with following the recommendations and that elementary school children, until they can get vaccinated, masks will be required. And that middle school and high school, when they are vaccinated, then parents can choose whether their children wear masks or not. But that's all. I'm just hoping you stick with the State Department of Health recommendations. So we'll see what you guys decide. Thank you. Thank you. Dave Wyant. Good evening. I'm David Wyant, PO Box 513, Browseburg, Indiana. I want to
042address these comments regarding the meeting minutes and what was said last school board to the school board again. It may have been overlooked, but we had board members say that there's no legislative statute that says we have to take public comments. Now this board member is a lawyer and I took him at his word. Now that's certainly true. But there is another time when you'll be forced to listen to the public and that's at the election time. So I want to thank folks today for the work that you've done. But clearly more work needs to be done. As I canvassed a room last time, as I canvassed the room this time, I hear opinions that they're clearly not doing thus and so. They clearly are doing thus and so. Both of these things can't be
043the same. Now, clearly from a board's perspective, you think you've communicated, you think you've been open and transparent, so forth and so on. Well, clearly more work needs to be done. The room is filled with various opinions of each one is individually different. So I would remind the board that two minutes is pretty short for one. and that you fail to listen or fail to work for the population as a whole, you will be heard. You will listen at the election time. And I'd like to conclude by saying, when taken from the total context of Martin Luther's King speech, there is only one interpretation of his message. That message stands alone. His message is not to be misused or construed for any one group's agenda. I have a dream that the four of my little
044children will one day live in a nation where they are not judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. Please be sure that the curricula, the conduct, the policies, and everything that the board governs matches to this goal that Dr. Martin Luther King outlined. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Tara Mitchell. Hello and thank you. There are people in our community, probably a few in every community, who create opposition. Some have even gone so far as to address a non-existent concept in our community, critical race theory. CRT is a movement of civil rights scholars that examines the law as it intersects with issues of race. It's not a pedagogy. It's not a teaching method. I believe that a point of confusion here could be with a common pedagogy and
045neighboring school districts called culturally responsive teaching and that also happens to go by the acronym of CRT. So Washington Township, Carmel, you may have heard of CRT. That is culturally responsive teaching, not critical race theory. Another focus lately has been on SEL or social emotional learning versus sticking to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Educators in BCSC follow state standards. Even the Indiana State Standards for English Language Arts are not just reading and writing. They include speaking and listening, media literacy. As for arithmetic, that's only one branch of mathematics. It's the basic operations, addition, subtraction, division. I'm not sure people are purposefully using the term arithmetic. because they don't wish for our students to acquire a mathematical education higher than second grade, or if it's because their beliefs are so antiquated that they even
046resort to 1950s educational terminology. Others are attempting to de- As others are attempting to demonize social emotional development under the pretense that it's a parent's job, I'd like to share the concept of Maslow before Bloom. My favorite educational quote and picture on my Zoom background is students must Maslow before they can Bloom. People in the education world know that Bloom's taxonomy classifies learning outcomes from kind of basics of recall all the way up into... evaluation, but for Maslow, that's a hierarchy of needs. It's a theory of human motivation divided into categories that have to do with a human's basic needs all the way to self-fulfillment. So Maslow before Bloom indicates that students are motivated to achieve learning goals when their basic needs are met. Your two minutes are up, so please try to conclude. Hunger,
047safety. It's imperative to teach the whole child. They're not a computer. They're humans with feelings. their emotions don't suddenly switch off from 8 30 to 3 30. So we have to stop demonizing something that is imperative for all children. Please conclude your comments. Thank you. Reverend Dr. Allen. Thank you, Dr. Snap, esteemed members of the school board. I spoke last month regarding my feelings about equity, my thankfulness. I will echo everything Dr. Eldridge has already said. about my gratitude to all of you, my gratitude to our community that we're willing to show up and stand up for our kids. We are about togetherness, about love, about mutual respect, and I hope that we continue to be about that. I want to be honest with you that this has been a tough week for me. I
048have three white kids in the Brownsburg School District. Only one of them is old enough to be vaccinated, and she is. When I heard that Dr. Snapp was going to be recommending not only that we make masks optional, but also that we discontinue the online option, I suddenly became scared for my two younger children in the walls of the Brownsburg school building. As a white mother with white children, Christian children, to my knowledge, not LGBTQ children. That's the first time I've ever been scared for my kids in the walls of a Brownsburg school building. And it made me realize how important the work that you all are doing for equity, for standing for children who won't have whatever is scary go away in two or three months when we're able to allow vaccinations. How important
049that work is. So I encourage you to keep up with that work, but I also ask you to please reconsider passing, if not both, at least one of Dr. Snapp's recommendations this evening, because to do so would put my children at risk. As Ms. Secord already read from the email from Dr. Fauci, masks, this mask doesn't protect me. It protects you in case I'm carrying COVID. So if I choose to put masks on my children, it doesn't help. I need other parents to allow their children to wear masks just for a couple more months until I can choose to have my kids vaccinated. Once all the kids have the option for vaccination, I am absolutely in favor of removing all mask mandates. In fact, I threw a party with my 13-year-old when she found out
050she wasn't going to, according to the Indiana Health Department, need to wear a mask to high school next year. But the Indiana Health Department is asking that we still mask kids 12 and under. And I ask that you follow that. Okay. Thank you. Laura Susek. I want to begin by thanking the board for taking diversity, equity, and inclusion seriously by hiring Shayla Webb as the DEI coordinator. I also want to thank you for your recent adoption of the definitions that will create the framework for discussions around DEI going forward. You may remember that my child was one of the BHS students at the center of the Kluge debacle several years ago. The resulting ridicule from certain members of our community, including some of my child's classmates, forced us into a decision for my child to
051withdraw from BHS and find another path to graduation. My child was made to feel unsafe in their school because of their gender identity and because of their willingness to publicly speak out and stand up for their self after Mr. Kluge went public with his complaints. I strongly believe that if this DEI work had begun before all of that had happened, the situation may have turned out very differently for my child. It feels fitting to say during Pride Month that it is my hope that this work will create a more positive and supportive environment for children like mine, as well as children who differ from mine in many other ways, because that's what DEI work is all about. I would like to end my comments by commenting on the masking policy for the upcoming school year.
052I see that the agenda includes recommendations to make masks optional and to eliminate at-home learning. Sadly, the pandemic is not yet over. Since children under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated, it is reckless and irresponsible to make masks optional in the upcoming school year, particularly in our elementary and middle schools. If we are going to make masks optional, we should keep the option for at-home learning. If we're going to remove the option for at-home learning, then we should keep masks mandatory. The Indiana State Department of Health released their masking guidance for schools about a week ago, and I ask that you follow their scientific medical guidance to ensure the safety of all the children in our schools. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our comments from patrons, and I again want to thank people, as I
053did before, for being respectful and allowing everybody to voice their opinion, and I'm glad people showed up and did so, so thank you for that. Next, we move on to old business, third reading and recommendation to approve board policies. Dr. Chesed. Thank you. These policies have been in front of you. I know that Dr. Fregi and Mrs. Dearman have given feedback on these, and we've made changes that reflect the feedback that they've given, and I ask for approval at this time. Do I have a motion? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions before we vote? Okay, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Second reading and recommendation to approve staff handbooks. Dr. Snapp. Thank you, Dr. Joseph. Thank you. This is a second reading and recommendation to
054approve this staff handbook. Request approval at this time, please. Second. We have a motion to second. Any questions? I have a question. In the support staff handbook, I think it's on page four, where it reads the Brownsburg Community School Corporation is very excited. to have you as a member of the staff. BCSC is committed to its vision and mission statements. And what is added is along with maintaining a welcoming, safe, and supportive environment for all, BCSC expects every staff member to support and contribute positively to the culture every day. I was just wondering what was all of that added or was that it's highlighted so I didn't know what the addition. Question? Jody? Yes. Okay. I guess my question was aside from all of our guidelines and everything that's outlined in our handbook, what else
055would contribute positively to the culture every day in Compass? Like what would be different from what we already require our staff to do? absolutely I was just confused as to why what it was before then if that was added like we must have felt to me okay it doesn't change anything okay it just felt vague to me so that's why I asked thank you any other questions your motion is second all in favor signify by saying aye aye all opposed motion passes I'm sorry. Yeah. And nominate on that. On the entire. Well, I would just. You're disapproving all staff handbooks. Yeah. That comment. I would just like more clarification on that. So if that means all handbooks, then sure. So you're voting against all staff handbook changes? Well, unless a change would be made to
056this. Statement then I don't if I have no option since April 30th, and I understand that it's 452 pages But I understand that motion passes for votes one against New business recommendation to change July 12 2021 business meeting to July 19 2021 dr snap because the board approved their meeting calendar and this is a change in the meeting calendar we just bring it to you for approval to move the business meeting from july the 12th to the 19th motion motion second any questions hearing none all those favors signify by saying aye aye all opposed motion passes a recommendation to offer only in-person instruction for the 2021-2022 school year dr snap Good evening. Due to the... The actual performance of students at at in-home instruction we want to look at some data for example English language
057arts or at-home learners pass at a 56% rate compared to our in-person learners 71% If we look at math results, it was a 45% pass rate to a 76% pass rate Typically we might have zero to two or three retentions a year this year we have 30 and when we begin to look at the number of students who are deficient in credit in spite of the hard work of the educators at the high school that home learning option does not provide the sound education and we really want to focus on what we do and we do really well and that's to teach our students at school so the recommendation is to only offer in-person instruction for the 21-22 school year do i have a motion motion and second any questions or comments hearing none all
058those in favor signify by saying aye aye all opposed motion passes recommendation to move to face covering optional in all school buildings effective july 1 2021 dr snap thank you this is a pretty straightforward recommendation but i do want to add some points of clarity What the difference between this year and last year is that it was driven a lot by the local county health agencies. This year, the governor has changed his declaration, putting that decision in the hands of school boards. And so the school board is being required to make a decision. When we look at the optional option of wearing face masks, that would be a decision that families could make for their. themselves. But the other part is that we're still working through right now. Uh, the U. S. Department of Transportation,
059if any of you have flown or been in airports, regardless of your political views, your vaccination or anything else, everyone's required to wear a mask. Um, the United States Department of Transportation does have some sway over our transportation and buses, and we're working through that right now. And so I want to be very clear if we're to lose funding or some other consequences as a result of not wearing masks on buses, the US Department of Transportation has an impact there. So there is a caveat to this. We wanted to make these decisions early in June, not late before school. We still have a number of weeks that we hope that the loosening of restrictions will come. But this recommendation is to move to face coverings optional in all BCSC property land property where that's transportation
060center school central office effective July the 1st motion second questions or comments for those we've heard we've heard it from a number of people who have concerns over it if their children meaning K through five have health questions what can we do to help them out when it comes to thank you mr. Wells for that question so correspondence pending approval of the board this evening will go to families tomorrow and families that have verified and legitimate health concerns can check a box to fill out a form that will come to us and we'll review that and we'll make the necessary accommodations for them. We expect that that will be there will be a number of families. I received emails like many of you from families that have children that are health compromised and so those
061certainly would be candidates for some differentiation and so we'll talk about that. One of the things that garnered a lot of attention in our conversations internally last year and I think there was some inflammatory language used at times about kids that could carry this and kill their grandparents and those things which was unnecessary. The reality of it is now that with so much of the population either being vaccinated or having the ability to be vaccinated the reasonableness of a student infecting an adult is really no longer a factor to be considered. And so really want to consider the health of everyone. When we consider the students or health, there will be options available to those students that desire that. And then also the impact on older adults. Thank you. Other questions or comments? I just
062want to I think I want to add I start out by saying I think we probably received as board members probably. not tons of emails, but I'd say they're pretty evenly split between people supporting the mask, stopping the mass mandate and those saying it should continue. And pretty much what I've consistently heard is the people that are asking for it to continue is mainly in the in the elementary school buildings because vaccinations are for the most part available to those in the middle school and in high school. And I don't think there's, you know, there's people on this board that, you know, we disagree on certain things. I don't think in this situation anybody's bowing to community pressure of any kind. I think we've all thought through this issue and looked at the different things
063going on. I mean, for example, you know, we looked closely at the number of cases and those things involved. I think today there was, at least the list that I saw, was about 140 cases in Indiana and one verified case in Hendricks County out of... 170 000 people i think cases have been studying the single digits most recently in over the last week or two in hendricks county since middle school and high school students are mostly eligible for the vaccine like i said most of the concerns that have been raised to us have been in the elementary school and i think while i appreciate those concerns I think from my position, based on the very low case counts that we have and the very number of small cases that we saw in the schools at
064the end of last year, the case counts were going way down and we were not even seeing kids bringing it into the school corporation. And then I think by us continuing to follow safety protocols. i think we were one of the few schools and i would almost bet maybe the only school in the state of indiana that didn't have to cancel a day last year due to covet related issues because i think of our safety protocols you know we were one of the first schools in the country that started in-person instruction and and we took safety very very seriously and trying to do that. But I just think now with the very low case counts with the number of people that are eligible to get vaccinated, the fact that Dr. Snap pointed out that it's
065not going to be a situation where kids are taking disease home because the people at home would have the opportunity to be vaccinated. I think that. know at least from my personal feeling i think we're at a position where where we can become a mass optional uh school but one thing i will say is you know if we if we see the cases numbers rise if we see spread within the schools it's something that we can we can immediately go back to and and readdress and we'll we'll be on top of as the start of the school year so any other questions or comments You know, I would just also say that I think all of us up here have kids in the schools so we can relate with those of you who have concerns
066and I would just echo what Eric said we've all you know Don't take this lightly at all and know that it's very emotional and a very important issue and I think we realized no matter what the decision that is made up here someone is going to not be happy with us and That's what we have to accept. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Dermott. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Recommendation to authorize administration to award construction contracts for West Middle School release five. Mr. Hoyt. With the movement of the board meeting in July to the 19th, we're asking for authorization to be able to award those contracts administratively, providing the contracts come in within the defined budget. And then we'll bring the information
067back to you probably in the consent agenda in July. Do I have a motion? Second. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments for Mr. Boyd? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Superintendent comments. Dr. Snap. Thank you. I will take the opportunity to make some comments this evening. First, I think it's important. Many comments on both sides of whatever issue tonight talked about the strong academic performance of Brownsburg schools that they moved here for the history of our schools the performance of our schools repeatedly unfortunately There are times when our the teachers are vilified particularly focusing on the teachers association the success in our school corporation has been a result of like-minded educators working for the benefit of students that's
068not the Administration on one side and the teachers on the other side and support staff someplace else That's a common vision that's embraced by all staff together And so I would just ask you to think for a moment about the people that you entrust your children with daily for a strong education, that that's our teachers. Some are in the Teachers Association, some are not. And their value to us as educators is not dependent on whether they're the association or not. Their value to us is what they do with your children every day, creating a caring, safe environment and educating them. The second thing that I'd like to talk a little bit about and I could not agree more with the parents that said Leave these things that teach us at home For parents that do
069teach these values at home. Thank you. We appreciate it Unfortunately, as a public school with nearly 9,500 students, some students come to us not knowing those values of how to treat each other kindly, how to address one another, how to be polite. And as old as school corporations and schools and education are, good educators teach the content and they also teach the character that goes along with that. So to say don't ever teach that. think about a conflict on the playground and would say, I can't address that because that's something that should be left at home. Our success in the school corporation has been a partnership between parents and educators, working together, understanding that. Many of you may say, as you think back on it, you know, when I got in trouble at school, I
070got it worse at home. And so that kind of kept you in line. And believe me, Brownsburg is still full of parents that support the school environment. And when a teacher or someone from school calls and says those teachers and educators are supported at home, we certainly appreciate that. I do want to talk just a little bit about critical race theory. and the hiring of a district equity coordinator in Shayla Webb. First of all, Mrs. Webb was hired to help us, number one, in recruiting a more diverse staff that mirrors our student population. Not lowering the standard to hire those people. Our performance is very important to us. Our people have to be able to teach and perform and help our kids learn regardless of the color of their skin. In addition to that, she
071was hired to help us have teachers answer questions. I had a presentation, which quite honestly I decided not to show because some of the kids that are in this presentation have already been through a lot. 17 cases of the N word being used in social media, whether that's on Instagram or that's been on Twitter, whether that's on whatever. I guess students don't use Facebook and I'm not familiar with all the social media that's maybe TikTok, maybe. That students are using the N word. It's being repeated. That's not appropriate. And we need to stand up and say that's just not appropriate. Now. Why are some of the kids saying it? For a variety of reasons. Do I think that those kids are intentionally racist? I think that a lot of the kids that we talk to
072don't understand. They listen to music that has that language embedded in it. And so part of our role as educators is to talk to them and educate them, not penalize them about those things. I think a close second, and this would surprise many of you, is the R word, retarded. We have a number of students that continue to use that word. That is not word that uplifts people and as educators we have began to address that and so I hate to put Dr. Jessup on the spot but Dr. Jessup, Kat Jessup is the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and Dr. Jessup how many years have you been in the Brownsburg Community School Corporation? I'm finishing my 27th year in Brownsburg Schools. Okay. And as a teacher? Teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent. And assistant
073superintendent for? Finishing my 10th year. Okay. And you oversee all curriculum that's taught to our students? Yes. All right. At any time during your 20-some years as an educator and now as assistant superintendent, in the past or in the future, have we ever talked about the implementation or the implementation of critical race theory? We have not. And as assistant superintendent who oversees all curriculum instruction, is that something that you would allow? I would not allow that. All right. People can speak louder and we can say we're not doing it and they'll say well You know what? We'll bring more people to the board meeting and say that you are and then we'll say no We're not doing and then that well that didn't do it. So bring more people and so this escalates It's not
074constructive. It's destructive and it just continues until somebody says you know what? I really want to see, and I want to hear from my own kids, not something that somebody else shares, is this happening in our schools? Critical race theory would diminish the results that we're having in our schools. Not only the academic results. but also the cooperative collaborative environment. And I hate that this is drawing some lines in this community about which side of the CRT issue are you on. That does nothing to benefit our schools or benefit our students. You've heard from someone who's been in here nearly three decades in education in Brownsburg that we are not doing it and she will not allow it. And you're hearing from me, we are not doing it and I won't allow it. And so
075can we please put the critical race theory issue to bed and focus on situations that are happening in our school when students are using derogatory terms to help them grow and mature and understand that and do that collaboratively instead of fighting. I do appreciate people's perspective. I enjoy hearing that. I'm happy to meet with people and talk about those things and answer those questions. But ask yourself, what are your own kids telling you what are you seeing in the classroom and ask those questions objectively in a way that allows them to answer and i would certainly appreciate that so we've clearly defined the role of our outstanding teaching staff that's had a tremendous impact on our performance the kids that we entrust that you can trust your kids with every day that this board entrusts
076their kids with every day you've also heard about critical race theory and that we're not doing it from a long time Brownsburg educator and assistant superintendent position authority oversees that and a superintendent. I do hope that we can move forward and I appreciate the board's patience tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Stapp. Board member comments, Mr. Wells. Yeah. As always, thank you for the comments, whether you agree with them or disagree with them. Glad they were done in a very respectful way. I want to thank everybody who's reached out to me via email in a respectful way. I've met with a number of community issue people answering questions on my thoughts on things. The issue tonight, obviously, is the... the optional mask whether or not and a number of you asked me why i plan
077to vote in favor i've got two kids that were in elementary school last year one is going on in middle school and i have one more elementary kid and both of my kids have played sports since last fall they have not worn a mask so i cannot sit here and say mass should be mandatory for kids k through five because i know my kids have not worn masks while they've been playing sports so for those who are curious on why i voted in favor of making mass optional that is my explanation for it and again thank everybody for coming out tonight thank you mister yeah um thank you i would echo exactly some of the things that Mike had said about our kids not wearing masks and just feeling like there's so much, I think,
078science on both sides. I think we can all probably have information that would support how we feel, but nevertheless, it is something we take seriously. I also would like to make a clarification for the public record, and so bear with me. I'll try to be really brief, but on March 8th, we did take a vote on our consent agenda. And that did include several new hires, including Mrs. Shayla Webb, our DEI director. And prior to taking that vote, I had communicated to board members, probably more than one, but I don't know exactly how many, that I was going to abstain from that vote simply because I was not in favor of the DEI position and I did not know Mrs. Webb. Mrs. Webb well enough to vote against her so I didn't want to do
079that. On the day of the meeting when we took the vote, I again shared that intention and I just made an assumption that we would be separating it out and that did not happen. And so ultimately when the vote was taken, my vote was in the affirmative for the entire. consent agenda and there were several other hires in there that were was perfectly okay with so i just wanted to apologize on my part for that i felt unsettled about it there's no avenue to do anything different when once a vote is is recorded and i think that's probably good but it was suggested that maybe a statement would be important just so that there's not confusion on my position in terms of the race issue as I have been consistent. And I just wanted that
080to be a public record. So and I appreciate all of you. I'm learning a lot. I'm in my third year on the board about representation and voting procedures and a multitude of other things. And so appreciate your grace as we grow in that. And we'll do my best to make sure I avoid a situation like that in the future. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Dierman. Dr. Friedrich? Well, enough's been said, but I'm going to keep mine shorter this time. Thank you again, once for all, to the people who came up and spoke. As I've said before, it's never easy getting up there, no matter what points you're making. So thank you. Please continue to be active, no matter your stance, and be knowledgeable about what's happening in your schools. And continue to do so. I
081will continue to serve the community through the board and only desire for our community to grow by providing opportunities for all the students that we represent and not one select individual or group over another, no matter who they might be. So please continue being part of this community and thank you for everybody or to everybody. Thank you, Dr. Friedrich. Ms. Heffernan. Yeah, thank you. I've been on the board a long time. And regardless of our differences, it makes me happy to see a room full of people. That's pretty rare over the, how many years has it been now? Seven-ish or so? A long time. So it's great to hear everybody's different opinions and being able to do so in the manner that we did today. Respectful of one another. For you guys that don't know
082me, I've got triplet boys. 13-year-old triple boys, so prayers are all welcome from everybody, but they can give me a run for my money. CRT, I'll admit, I had to Google it when we started hearing about it, and I've done a lot of research. Obviously having three white male boys in school, triplets, it's not something that I would support CRT. I think some of the other initiatives that we're doing are going to be helpful for everybody, to them in our IEPs, and to really pay attention to what they need from a learning perspective because they're premature from being triplets. So I just really want to thank everybody again and just let you know that I think only time will tell in what we say, and that's sometimes what we have to play out in the
083years that I've been on the board. um looking at that time and seeing where where we go with everything thank you miss everton um i'll just add i think you know when we get a chance to sit up on the stage of graduation and watch the kids' names be called as they walk across. I think it really makes an impression on you, the number of minority students that we have in our corporation. And I think we're all here about wanting to make sure everybody is treated equally and is treated fairly. I've had some discussions with some board members. Indiana has not banned CRT. Had the legislative session probably gone on longer. My guess is a lot of the states that started moving to banning CRT happened around the time that our General Assembly was wrapping
084up its session for the year in April. But it would not surprise me if next year that the Indiana legislature would ban CRT, following suit with many other states. And I'm perfectly fine with this because we're not teaching it. We've adopted some definitions. So I don't think that will change one thing that we're doing here in Brownsburg Community Schools if Indiana puts a ban on CRT. So it would not cause me any concern one way or another because we're not teaching that and we don't, like Dr. Snapp and Dr. Jessup said, we don't have any intentions to do that. So I just, I wanted to point that out because again. saying that if they do have a ban on CRT, I don't think that's going to change much of what we do here in Brownsburg
085because we're not teaching that. I think, you know, when I went through the last election cycle, my opponent was saying I was going to support defunding the police, that I was going to bring the 1619 Project to Brownsburg schools and critical race theory and all those other things, and none of that is true and none of that's going to happen. So we, I think we have... One of, if not the best, school corporation in the state of Indiana. I think we, you know, you'll see here in a few weeks how well we did. Testing this year, I think that was a big... about having kids in person for the entire year. We're going to continue to do that. That's one of the reasons we're going with the full in time. And sometimes you have to
086make unpopular decisions. And the mask decision was going to make some people happy and some people upset, as was the full time in person. But we think that's critical to have our kids. We're not a one-on-one computing corporation. We're not one that cancels schools and has at-home learning days. We want our children to be in schools and their seats being taught by our incredible teachers. So I think just like other people said, talk to your kids this year, talk to them what they're learning. Are they being indoctrinated? Are they are they coming? Are they you know, I don't think we're going to have any white children that are going to say that we're being taught to hate ourselves. I don't think that's going to be the situation. But ask ask ask your kids like like
087Mrs. Dearman said, we all all five board members here have kids in Brownsburg schools and and we're not gonna want that for our Children as well. So have those conversations with your Children. Keep coming back here as much as you want to state your positions. We do welcome that. Um, but I just think as you see as we go along, I just I just wanted to make the point that we're Indiana to ban CRT. I don't think that would be changing anything that we're doing right now, so that that would not be a problem at all. But Thank you all again for coming. You're welcome any time to come in and share your comments. And we appreciate when you make those comments. So do I have a motion for adjournment? So moved. Do I have
088a second? Yeah. Motion and second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you.